Mitchell movement

Mitchell movement is a simple kind of movement where all boards and players move in a uniform manner. N-S pairs are stationary and E-W pairs are moving. After each round, all E-W pairs move up one table and all boards move down one table. Here is a simple illustration:

complete Mitchell movement of 5 tables

Round\Table

1

2

3

4

5

EW

boards

EW

boards

EW

boards

EW

boards

EW

boards

1

6

1-2

7

3-4

8

5-6

9

7-8

10

9-10

2

10

3-4

6

5-6

7

7-8

8

9-10

9

1-2

3

9

5-6

10

7-8

6

9-10

7

1-2

8

3-4

4

8

7-8

9

9-10

10

1-2

6

3-4

7

5-6

5

7

9-10

8

1-2

9

3-4

10

5-6

6

7-8

The NS pair number of the same as the table number.

Mitchell movement works the best when there is a odd number of complete tables. In this case, if there are N tables (2N pairs), a complete movement contains N rounds, all NS pairs meet all EW pairs once, and all boards are played N times, producing two separate ranks: one for NS and one for EW. If only one winner is intended, arrow switch is used.

Contents

To prevent EW pairs playing the same board twice, a SKIP is announced at the half of the session, which all EW pairs move up TWO tables but the boards move down ONE table as usual. Here's an example for 6 tables:

Also called bye-stand. An extra table, called the bye-stand, is set up at the half of the field (i.e. between table 3 and 4 when 6 playing tables are there). Boards but not players are placed there. The last table shares boards with the first table. The following is an example with 6 tables:

complete relay Mitchell movement of 6 tables

Round\Table

1

2

3

bye-stand

4

5

6

EW

boards

EW

boards

EW

boards

boards

EW

boards

EW

boards

EW

boards

1

7

1–4

8

5–8

9

9–12

13–16

10

17–20

11

21–24

12

1–4

2

12

5–8

7

9–12

8

13–16

17–20

9

21–24

10

1–4

11

5–8

3

11

9–12

12

13–16

7

17–20

21–24

8

1–4

9

5–8

10

9–12

4

10

13–16

11

17–20

12

21–24

1–4

7

5–8

8

9–12

9

13–16

5

9

17–20

10

21–24

11

1–4

5–8

12

9–12

7

13–16

8

17–20

6

8

21–24

9

1–4

10

5–8

9–12

11

13–16

12

17–20

7

21–24

The NS pair number of the same as the table number.

The consequence is that, if the movement is not completed, not all boards are played by the same number of pairs and the result has to be adjusted.